Lil Wayne: 'Lollipop'

If you haven't heard of Lil Wayne before, it's not because he hasn't been trying. The 25-year-old from New Orleans regularly declares himself the best rapper in the world - and he's not alone in thinking it. He was voted the "Hottest MC in the Game" in an MTV poll, while Blender magazine dubbed him the "Best Rock Star Alive". Perhaps buoyed by the hyperbole, his new single 'Lollipop' has already reached number one in the States. The pertinent question: is Lil Wayne the saviour of hip-hop?

Well, if 'Lollipop' is anything to go by, the answer's a resounding no. Its synthy bleeps, vocoder effects and soft, seductive drums are fairly interesting, but there's little else to recommend this track. Its lyrics, meanwhile, are crude and uninspired - hasn't 50 Cent done the lollipop-as-sexual-metaphor thing to death? If Lil Wayne really is the future of hip-hop, it's a truly worrying time for the genre.